How Diskettes Work

The diskettes you use are flexible plastic, coated with a magnetic material and enclosed in a protective plastic case. Information is recorded in magnetic patterns on both surfaces of the diskette. Because data is stored magnetically, you can retrieve, record, and erase data, just as you play, record, and erase music on cassette tapes.

When you insert a diskette in a drive, a metal shutter above the diskette’s access area moves aside to expose the diskette surface. When your computer reads data from or writes data to the diskette, it causes the diskette to spin within its plastic casing. Then the drive’s read/write head locates the appropriate position on the diskette and performs the operation you specify.

Choosing Diskettes for the Equity LT-286e

Be sure to buy high-quality diskettes to use in your Equity LT-286e. You can use two kinds of diskettes:

Cl 3 l/z-inch, 720KB, double-sided, double-density diskettesLl 3 l/z-inch, 1.44MB, double-sided, high-density diskettes.

On a 720KB diskette, you can store the equivalent of about 300 pages of text. You can store twice as much information on 1.44MB diskettes, but the 3 ‘/z-inch diskette drives on some computers cannot use these high-capacity diskettes. If you are planning to exchange data with a computer that has a 720KB diskette drive, use 720KB diskettes in your Equity LT-286e.

If you have an external, 5 ‘/.+-inch, 1.2MB (high-capacity) diskette drive, use 5 l/+-inch, double-sided, high-density diskettes in this drive. These diskettes can hold the equivalent of about 500 pages of text and are compatible with the high- capacity diskette drives used on some models of the IBM AT. The 1.2MB diskette drive can read 360KB diskettes.

2-18 Using the Equity LT-286e